Thursday, November 19, 2015

Fabulous Phrase From Recent Great Demo! Workshop: < = >

< = >

What does this mean?  Less is More. 

It was very effectively communicated earlier this week at a Great Demo! Workshop by one of the customer’s principals who kicked-off the session by moving to a white board and writing, “< = >”.  He then asked, “So, what does this mean?”

A few tentative responses came from the audience, such as, “Less-than is equal to greater-than…?” and “I don’t get it…”  He responded by saying, “It means ‘Less is More’ – this is one of the key guiding principles of the Great Demo! methodology.”  


What a delightful way to kick-off a Kick-off – truly terrific!

Friday, November 13, 2015

Simple Best Practice for Ending Web Demos and Webinars

Here’s a simple best practice for ending web demos and webinars:  Hit “Pause” at the end of your session. 

(Using tools such as WebEx and GoToMeeting) This freezes the screen that the audience sees.  Doing this reduces the risk of forgetting to stop sharing your screen – and therefore the risk of your audience watching you work on your email, or browse some non-business-like websites (*ahem*) or update your forecast or other potentially embarrassing activity… 

I recommend hitting Pause first, then stopping sharing and doing other session-related clean-up next.


Note:  Bonus points will be awarded to presenters who, at the end of their demo, return to the best, most compelling screen (an “Illustration”) before hitting Pause.  I can’t tell you how many presenters finish a demo and then show a PowerPoint slide that says, “Questions?” or “Thank You!” – that’s a serious waste of an opportunity.  The last thing the audience sees will likely be remembered moderately well – take advantage of that!